Clouds Over the Moon, a Storm Over Blossoms
by Ninjagirl2211
Summary: "Nidaime-sama was a great man—" "I know, I know. Founded the academy system, village infrastructure, blah, blah. He also wrote the ninja rule book. And I'll tell you one thing, if I do ever meet that self-righteous prick—I don't care how I have to do it—I'm gonna take that goddamned book and shove it up his—" "SAKURA!" Sakura as you know her...will never be the same. [Sakura!OC]
1. Don't Hold Back

**CLOUDS OVER THE MOON, A STORM OVER BLOSSOMS**

**_:1: Don't Hold Back :1:_**

The sky was blue over Konoha that day—like just about any other day, really. Sure, they had rain, snow, and any other increments of weather in Fire Country, but its summers were long, extending into a springtime that lasted nearly the whole year, and its agricultural system? Thriving. The only thing to fear really, were the droughts that sometimes wafted up from Wind Country, but that was a rare occurrence and hadn't happened in several decades. Still, even without the droughts, the heat could be stifling, nevertheless. The frail and elderly were forced to stay indoors on such days due to the number of heatstrokes that had been known to pile up each year. Even healthy young people were advised to stay out of the sun…but those who attended Konoha's ninja academy didn't have that luxury. Ninja weren't really considered people anyway. Were they even human? Not many could make the distinction, and those of the trade didn't exactly make it easy for outsiders to figure it out. You usually didn't make it close enough for that before hitting the ground dead.

That was the reputation, anyway…but with people like Naruto around, you'd probably never know it. He took the entire shinobi stereotype and wiped his ass with it. For a lot of seasoned shinobi, this was disturbing, and frankly _insulting_, for multiple reasons. Not only did the boy practically wave around a giant sign advertising HOW NOT TO BE A NINJA, he also housed the hated force that had nearly decimated the village twelve years prior—though it was supposed to be kept a secret, it was practically the worst kept one in the entire village. Even the other children sensed the dislike everyone felt for him, and responded in kind. Anyone would be able to see that it was actually cruel if they had taken even a second to care, and look past the smiling prankster to the isolated, hurting kid behind the mask.

But it was only another story. The village was full of them, after all; Orphans, rejects, clan geniuses, whiners, and wannabe's…rags to riches, and princes to paupers. You could win, or you could lose. The game ninja played was one that teetered on the tightrope of life and death constantly without knowing where the other end was tied…and then there were those who lingered at the edge and pulled the strings, controlling others for their own gain, and some…purely for their own sick amusement. All you could hope for in that life was that someone didn't cut the line short.

However…there was one girl in the village who was already too familiar with what happens when the precarious rope we all balance on is oh so abruptly severed. It was a bit of a strange story. Tragic. Maybe you could even call it a ghost story. Because what really inhabited that girl was not her own soul…but a wayward spirt who had already tasted death…and had somehow selfishly reattached itself to life. Me.

"Sakura! You're going to be late!"

"I'm coming, Mom!"

It had taken me a long time before I could call her that with a straight face and a firm voice. I still felt a phantom stab of guilt in my heart whenever I thought about it. But twelve years of practice helped me ignore it. There was nothing I could really do about it now, after all…

I tried to brush my longish bangs out of my face, but for some reason, it never really worked for me the way the other Sakura's did. The fringe never failed to fall dutifully back into my eyes… Ino probably could've fixed it the right way—fashionable as she was—but I had always been too shy to talk to her, and too cautious to let anyone _near_ me with a pair of scissors, being the instrument of my death in another life.

And so while other children grew out of the childish fear of getting their hair cut…I did not. Mom was beside herself for a while until she discovered kunai did not evoke the same hysterical reaction as scissors did. It didn't make an awful lot of sense, and it left the ends of my hair looking rather ragged and jaggedy, but she rolled with it. As long as it did not bring the Uchiha Police Force banging down her door, on account the neighbors had called in, convinced she was attempting to murder her own daughter, Mebuki was fine with whatever I was fine with. She still had a bit of a complex about touching my hair though, seeing as how it brought back bad memories of murder accusations and nasty rumors that still circulated through our part of the neighborhood. And so my hair was never cut as long as it could be helped, consequentially extending down to my elbows…

I wrapped it up in a messy bun next to my ear, the rest of it tickling my bare shoulder in uneven strings of light pink. My long-sleeved shirt was a little big—okay, _really_ too big, on account of it being Dad's—whine red, sakura patterned, and hung off the shoulder a bit. A modular belt tied around the middle formed a sort of tunic overtop standard mesh armor, black shorts, boots with reinforced ankles, and work gloves with knuckle cushioning, wrist guards, and essential fingers cut out for mobility purposes. It wasn't fashionable, exactly, but it got the job done. I had everything I needed packed up in a scroll on the back of my belt, and could be off at a moment's notice…which is why I procrastinated and usually slept in too late. In consequence, I was usually always bursting into class at the last minute with my hair looking even more disheveled than usual. The only one ever later than me was _Naruto_…which was really saying something about my prioritization skills—or lack thereof in this case.

I grabbed a couple of peaches and stuck them in the concealed compartment up my sleeve for later—not exactly the most practical use for this utility, but I couldn't afford poison on my current allowance, and by then it'd hardly be the place for storing _food_, but I digress… I pecked mom on the cheek and waved off the offer of breakfast, "I wish I could stay and eat with you guys, but I'm already going to be late enough as it is. Sorry…"

"You never eat enough!" She chastised me. "You need to start waking up earlier! You should take your health more seriously."

I bowed my head shamefully. "I know… Sleep is my weakness."

"Haha, just like me!" Dad spoke up from behind his news pamphlet.

"She _is_ just like you! Both of you have the same incorrigible bad habits!" Mom shot back accusingly, "When did this happen?! Why wasn't I informed ahead of time!? Then I could've at least done _something_—"

"It was inevitable, Mama. Don't worry yourself too much over it. Just look how _I_ turned out!" He grinned heartwarmingly at her.

Mom sent me a pointed look and I frowned back with a nod of understanding, both of us agreeing on one solid point: Something would _have_ to be done about this before the situation became irreversible…

"I'll see you both later if Iruka-sensei doesn't keep me after class for tardiness again…" I mumbled with a sigh.

"Don't hurry too much, Sakura-chan!" Dad winked that wink that said he was about to tell one of his horrible jokes. "…You might run over an old person."

"_Papa_!" Mom whacked him in the head. "Don't even joke about something like—"

"I'm going!" I hurried away from the ensuing argument with all the enthusiasm of a fish from a frying pan.

"Make sure to watch out for—mmpft!" He had either been put in a headlock, or had something stuffed in his face…probably a dishtowel.

"Make good choices, Honey!" Mom's voice carried out after me onto the street, and my face burned with embarrassment…especially when I saw _Ino_ walking right by. By the snickering, I could tell she had heard. What made it worse was that we were both headed in the same direction and I was forced to walk in close proximity to her the entire way. I didn't think it could get much worse—

"You too huh?"

I blinked up at her in surprise. "Um…what?"

"Your parents are like that too? I was convinced it was just my dad. I swear, he does it on purpose just to torture me. He is, like, at the head of the Torture and Interrogation squad after all." She turned more heated as she animatedly explained, "And every time I even come _close_ to getting a boyfriend, Dad scares the crap out of them! I'm not even allowed to have _normal _friends who are guys unless they're Shikamaru or Choji, but Shikamaru's stupid, and Choji's a fatass!"

I blinked more rapidly as she began to vent and list off some more of the grievances against her father, and not being able to get away with anything due to her entire family being mind-readers. I was somewhat bemused by the entire thing, because it was the first time I had actually _talked_ to Ino like this…ever. I was hardly able to get a word in edgewise other than to nod every once and a while, and comment something like, "Wow…that sounds rough…" And pretend I hadn't seen her dad die in another life… I bet she wouldn't be so keen on resenting him so much if she knew what I knew. But she didn't, and for the first time, I finally saw Ino—super-popular and fashion friendly Ino—as someone who might actually be human.

"You know, you're really easy to talk to. How come you never speak up in class, ne Sakura-chan? You're almost as bad as Hinata, heheh!" She smiled at me, catching me off guard.

"Umm…I don't know, really." I shrugged uncomfortably. "I guess I just don't have much to say. I always feel like I'll blurt out something incredibly awkward, or offensive, and get stared at funny. Mom says I can be too blunt sometimes…"

"Meh, who cares what they think! Don't let it hold you back!" She grinned widely, slapping me on the back. "You should say what _you_ think! Go all out! And if they stare at you funny, just stare funny at them right back. Got it?"

Without meaning to, a smile formed on my face. "Yeah. Thanks. I think I needed to hear that. I feel ready to take on the world now."

"Well, good!" She chirped, grabbing my arm and looping it with hers, "'Cause we're gonna take over! The world will be a better place with girls like us in charge. We know how to get things done!"

"As long as there's no paperwork involved," I laughed.

Ino made a face, sticking out her tongue. "That will be the first thing to go! Good idea, Sakura!"

Somehow she had switched from venting her woes, to making _me_ feel better. I just couldn't keep up with her. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had so much fun just talking to someone. It wasn't exactly like I had friends… It was nice.

"Oh man…" The gravity in her voice surprised me, and she pointed to something up over the rooftops. "What the heck is _that_?!"

I blinked at the horrendous display that had been painted onto the Hokage monuments with recognition. "_Naruto_…"

"That's _Naruto_ up there?!" Ino shaded her eyes as if trying to make out the features on the tiny speck in the distance hanging from a suspension harness under The Third's nose like a particularly snotty booger. "Oh god, if Iruka-sensei catches him, he's going to be _pissed_! You know how he is! One of us gets punished, the rest of us get it too!"

I stared at the speck in the distance with determination. "…I'll get him."

Ino looked at me incredulously for a second, then grinned. "Then I'm coming with you!"

"No, I beat you in speed drills, remember? You'll only slow me down."

"Geez…" She grumbled reproachfully. "Rub it in, why don't you?"

"You can do something else for me though." I smiled reassuringly at her. "See if you can keep Iruka-sensei distracted long enough to drag that idiot off the monument, okay? You're better at talking to people than I am. And he likes you better than me anyway."

She laughed. "Yeah, you're right about that part. You get yelled at almost as much as Naruto!"

"Don't remind me." I rolled my eyes. "If this all works out according to plan, nobody is going to get yelled at… Well—" I broke off, and rethought that. "No, actually, Naruto is _still_ probably going to get yelled at, but at least we'll be out of the line of fire."

"Good thinking, Sakura!" She laughed. "Who cares about that idiot anyway?"

I almost flinched. Years of watching the kid, and getting a more than intimate close-up of what went on inside his head via otherworldly means had made me pretty sensitive to the harsh words that got thrown around about him. And the answer to the question? Nobody. Nobody cared about Naruto, sans Iruka-sensei and a few other obscure individuals—though they all seemed to have a funny way of showing it.

"Yeah… Who cares…?" I mumbled back, and took off, calling back over my shoulder, "See you back at class!"

"Good luck!" She called back. Boy was I going to need it.

I poured on the speed, enhancing the muscles in my legs with a concentrated pulse of chakra to get a good momentum going. I wasn't known for my speed in class for no reason. I seemed to have been born with a better amount of control than most people, plus the fact that I had already been fairly athletic to begin with in my past life. It wasn't really such a big switch from what I was used to in the beginning stages of training. I had been in track and field, but above that…I had been a dancer. But it brought back bad memories, and though I had incorporated some of the graceful movements from my ballet into the fighting style I worked on with Mom to create a faster, more effective, flowing technique…I hadn't danced again since that last time.

At any rate, it seemed that I was much more capable at kicking the shit out of people than I ever was at dancing…

However…with Konoha's number one prankster, though I _felt_ like beating the shit out of him on numerous occasions—doubly so on the one where he thought it would be funny to superglue everyone's butts to their seats—I figured it wouldn't be the best course of action in this particular situation. Instead, I beseeched him in an already defeated sounding voice, "Naruto…please come down…"

"Eh? Sakura-chan?" He looked down, seemingly shocked to find me there, then grinned. "Admiring my amazing artwork?"

I blinked once, slowly, taking in the scene. It mainly featured poop, and perverted nosebleeds…but something seemed to be missing… Before I could help myself, I suggested, "You should paint a giant penis on Nidaime's forehead—with extra-hairy balls."

The way he looked at me, it was as if I had just sprouted antlers, and a second head on top of it. Seeing that I had, in fact, been the source of the recommendation and not one of the scandalized passersby, be opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again, "SAKURA-CHAN, YOU'RE A GENIUS!"

"W-wait," I pinched the bridge between my nose in frustration at myself. "I didn't mean _now_! It's time for class now, and if Iruka-sensei finds out you're the one who did this, there's going to be hell to pay—"

"You mean _you_ don't want to get in trouble!" He suddenly accused, pointing down at me with a paintbrush. "I get it now! You don't want to help at all, do you?!"

I sent him a pleading look, clasping my hands anxiously. "Naruto… _Please_ come down… I'm begging you."

"Oh yeah?" He crossed his arms, swaying from side to side in his harness at a nauseating height and fixing me with a stinkeye. "What will you give me if I do?"

"I…I'll…" Wait… Didn't Naruto have a _crush_ on the other Sakura? Swallowing my pride, curling my toes, and balling my fists at what I was about to do, I blurted, "I'll go on a date with you! After school! Just—please! _Come down_!"

His cheeks went bright red, and then he grinned wider than I even thought was possible. "Okay! Just gotta draw that penis first!"

"Oh god…" I rolled my eyes at first as he actually started to do it. He actually put a lot of detail into the thing and I let my face fall into my palm with an audible 'smack' when I saw him check down his pants for reference once or twice. "What on earth have I gotten myself into…?"

"What indeed…?" Spoke a hair-raising voice from behind me.

I froze, my neck twitching around to face the entity behind me with a slight shiver of terror running through my frame. "Ho-ho-hokage-sama… Funny seeing you here…aheheh…" I couldn't exactly count on Ino to distract the Fire Shadow himself now, could I? Way to go, Sakura. Way to take all variables into account. Goddamnit—

Oh, and, right on cue. Iruka-sensei seemed to be making his way through the crowd, and I could practically see the smoke puffing out of his flared nostrils like an angry rhinoceros. The adrenalin must've been getting to me, because a fight or flight effect was instinctually urging me to— "NARUTO, RUN!"

And…that is how I found myself tied to said social outcast with actual rope. Not that rope wasn't a handy thing to have on you at all times, but I had to say, Iruka-sensei really thought this thing through… I panicked, okay? Even the best panic at times…okay, maybe not in this universe. It was even in the ninja rule book… '**Rule #536:**_Remain calm and collected under any and all circumstances_.' But nobody really listened to that crap—it was more like guidelines anyway—I mean…I think they were…I'm pretty sure… Aw, shitfuckgoddamint—

"Alright class!" Iruka-sensei cut us loose and dragged us both up to the front of the class sadistically by our ears, "Because of these two troublemakers, we're going to do a jutsu review! How's that sound?! Line up!"

There was a communal sound of groans and whining and complaining, and Ino, who caught my eye, signed to me in ninja code, '_Tough luck_.'

I cringed as Iruka-sensei tugged on my ear and signed back emphatically, '_Life sucks…_'

I think she was the only one I heard laughing in the entire bunch.

Of course, I was unanimously volunteered to help clean up the mess. Oh, and my mother was going to hear about this apparently. "I am so grounded… Naruto, this _counts_ as that date I promised you."

"Aw, but Sakura-chan—"

"No but's. Just clean," I grated out furiously.

He sighed, dumping a bucket out on the dried paint and began scrubbing halfheartedly. Iruka-sensei was watching us both like a hawk and picked up on the slacker, pointing out, "Neither of you goes home until every _speck_ is cleaned off!"

I felt like making a face and mocking him in the high-pitched voice Dad sometimes used for Mom whenever she wasn't around, but figured it was a bad idea and schooled my features into a scowl instead. Naruto, however, did not seem so reserved, and in fact…even sounded bitter when he griped, "Yeah, yeah… It's not like anyone's going to be waiting up at home for me." His eyes flicked to me after a second and he rubbed his neck sheepishly, "Eh…sorry Sakura-chan. I didn't mean to get you in trouble with your folks 'n all…"

A sudden rush of sympathy guided my actions as I patted his head with a half-smile and I said genuinely, "Don't worry about it. Getting grounded isn't so bad…I'll just sneak out to train again anyway. Besides," I grinned, "it's mostly _my_ fault for getting involved in your stupid escapades the first place."

"Hey!" He protested, slapping my hand away. "They're _not_ stupid! And this is a work of art—"

"Naruto…" Iruka started contemplatively, "If you work fast, maybe I'll take you both out to ramen. What do you say?"

"Eh? Ramen?" He then looked at me hopefully, "Ne, Sakura-chan? What did you say about this counting as a date?"

I let out a long sigh. "I _did_ promise you a date…"

"Alright! Yahoo!" Geez, that kid could do wonders when he was motivated…

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan, have you ever been to Ichiraku before? Old Man Teuchi makes the best ramen ever! Isn't that right, Old Man!?" He grinned at the ramen chef behind the bar who saluted him, and Iruka gave him a nod back with a greeting of his own. The two appeared to be regulars. I couldn't help but feel like I was intruding. However, Naruto grabbed my hand, "C'mon, Sakura-chan, you can sit next to me. Hey, Old Man, guess what! I'm on a date!"

I rolled my eyes. But Teuchi seemed confused. "With your teacher?"

Iruka and I couldn't help but laugh at his helpless expression as he flustered, "No! No! With Sakura-chan! _Sakura-chan_! Iruka-sensei's only here cause he's paying!" Teuchi laughed then as Iruka explained to him the technicalities of dates and how it was usually customary for the guy to pay for the girl's meal.

"Does that mean Iruka-sensei is technically the one taking me on a date?" I interrupted, raising brows dubiously as something in the chunin's brain seemed to go pop. "'Cause I gotta say, I'm just not into that sort of thing. I'm not so old fashioned that I can't pay for my own stuff either," I snorted as I actually witnessed our teacher physically facepalm.

"Sakura-chaaan!" Naruto whined, "You're on a date with _me_, not Iruka-sensei!"

"Then next time, don't get caught doing stupid stuff so you don't have to bring him on the date!" I pointed out brutally.

Said point seemed to go right over his head, and he fixated on something else. "There's going to be a next time…?"

"_No_," I hammered down even more brutally, seeming to literally crush the hope floating in the air.

"Trouble in paradise?" Teuchi offered, at which point I focused my ire on the old man.

"I'm paying for chicken ramen…" I grumbled out irritably, getting out my coin purse from one of the pockets on my belt and sliding the payment across the bar. "…not a commentary."

He just laughed. Apparently he'd had tougher customers than me.

"Naruto…" Iruka-sensei started, after the boy had already finished his first bowl of ramen (I'd never seen anyone eat _anything_ that fast) seeming to get to the heart of the matter, "Why did you deface the Hokage monuments?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it again, opened it, then suddenly jabbed his finger at me, "The penis on Nidaime's head was _her_ idea!"

I widened my eyes and slapped him in the back of the head. "Traitor!"

"Ah! _Sakura_-_chan_!"

"_Naruto_…" Iruka persisted.

"Okay, okay… It's because I'm going to be the best Hokage out of all of them! Believe it!" Everyone sort of just stared at him for a second—Iruka, with a noodle hanging halfway out of his mouth—even _me_, and I was expecting it.

Then I shrugged, and listed _my_ reason: "I just think the Nidaime was a giant _dick_…" At which point Naruto burst out laughing and Iruka choked on his ramen.

I'd like to think my confession had greater lasting impact, because after he recovered from nearly being done in by his food, Iruka exclaimed, "Sakura! Why would you even _say_ something like that?"

"'Cause it's _true_," I answered flatly.

"How can you know that?! You never _met_ him!" he insisted.

"Neither did _you_," I pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Nidaime-sama was a great man—"

"I know, I know. Founded the academy system, village infrastructure, blah, blah, blah. He also wrote the ninja rule book. And I'll tell you one thing, if I _do_ ever meet that self-righteous prick—I don't care _how_ I have to do it—I'm gonna take that goddamned book and shove it up his—"

"_SAKURA_!"

Naruto still hadn't stopped laughing.

All in all, it was a pretty eventful day…and I ended up happier that I had taken Ino's advice on not holding myself back. And if there was one thing I had learned at the end of that day, it was that I was _done_ pretending. From now on, no matter what happened in the past, and no matter what the future may hold…

My name is Sakura Haruno.

* * *

**Okay, I know this should probably be put into a 'I MIGHT UPDATE THIS IF I GET PEOPLE BUGGING ME ABOUT IT' category, but I just couldn't help myself. My computer is working again (barely), and I was working on this as a breather from "This is Not a Contest." I've seen people write Sakura body swap stories before, and thought I'd try my hand at sticking an OC in her body, just to see what happens. 'Clouds over the moon, a storm over blossoms' is a Japanese proverb that means even though there is happiness, misfortune might be just around the corner...so expect this bright, happy atmosphere to take a turn for the worse sooner or later :) This story is marked as semi SI because I didn't really know what else to categorize it as. **

**Anyone got any better ideas? Leave a review.**


	2. The Perils of Getting Out of Bed

**Clouds Over the Moon, a Storm Over Blossoms**

_**:2: The Perils of Getting Out of Bed :2:**_

"Umm…yeah, he isn't bad looking, I guess…" I mumbled, rubbing my neck uncomfortably with a frown. "The only problem is that he's absolutely _terrifying_… He kicked my butt last time in spars. And I have absolutely _no idea_ how to go about putting up a defense against him." This was distressing for me, because I was smart. After a while, I _always_ came up with a method for defeating my opponent—some countermove or what have you. With Sasuke, it just didn't _work_. It was actually depressing to consciously _acknowledge_ the gap that lay between us, and what was worse is that he had absolutely no qualms reminding _everyone_ of that fact. I _hated_ getting paired up with him because it meant certain failure…and I _hated_ failure. I think I hated _him_ a little bit too.

Ino, however, was besotted. She grinned. "Well, you know what they say! The best defense is a great offense!" A determined expression then took root on her blue-eyed features and she took it upon herself to demonstrate. "Like this, Sakura!" And with that, she was off, marching down the auditorium styled classroom and planting herself down _right next_ to the bastard. I really had to admire her balls when she even cuddled his arm and began to flirt shamelessly. She even made the sourpuss king blush a couple of times. Nobody could say that girl didn't have the guts of a lioness…and the claws of one too. Not even Sasuke was going to get those hooks out of him. She turned her head then to stick her tongue out at me and pulled her eyelid down cheekily. I rewarded her with a slow clap and murmured to myself, "You win this round Ino." Hell, maybe she was on to something with that offence thing. It's just too bad the last spars of the year were over.

"Hey…Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned nervously at me. "Can I sit by you?"

I sent him a stinkeye, "…You don't have any itching powder on you, do you?"

He waved his hands in deference, "No way! I promise, I'm clean!"

I sent him one last wary look, but with Naruto, a promise is a promise, and so I gestured my hand imperiously to the seat beside me with the warning, "I've got a short fuse today, Naruto. Don't do anything stupid."

"Me? Do something stupid? Pah!" He tried to wave it off, but my continued use of a flat stare aimed at his face seemed to leech the confidence out of that claim real quickly. He rubbed his neck sheepishly, "Well, uhhh… What's wrong Sakura-chan? What's got your fuse so short?"

I arched a brow at him and asked, "…Did you even study _at all_ last night?"

"No. Why?" He blinked at me.

I covered my eyes. "Didn't you hear a _thing_ Iruka-sensei said to us when we were out getting ramen?" When I looked up at him, it was with little sympathy. "Naruto! The _exam_ is today! Don't you remember?! It's only the deciding factor of everyone's future!"

"_What_?!" He exclaimed, holding his head in shock and drawing the eyes of several people surrounding us. "When did he say that?! When?!"

My eyes drooped sardonically at him. "Probably the moment he saw you weren't paying attention. Just to spite you."

"He _would_ do that!" He pounded his palm with his fist as if suddenly understanding everything. "I get it now! Everything up until this point has been this huge plot to sabotage me!"

"Actually…you're just an id—" I paused, rethinking that. "Well…I wouldn't put that past some people. But, seriously, Iruka-sensei wouldn't do something like that. You're his favorite student."

"Eh?" He looked at me as if he thought I was smoking something.

"Don't you get it?" I rolled my eyes. "Iruka-sensei yells at me all the time, and yesterday was the firsttime he ever took _me_ out to ramen—and only because _you_ were there. The only reason Iruka-sensei ever yells at you is because he _likes_ you, Idiot. It's _blatant_ favoritism. Don't try and deny it, or I'll hit you."

And, for the first time, I believe, in living memory, the orange ninja was rendered silent. I was slightly amazed. And then Iruka walked in and announced the test would be on the clone jutsu and Naruto's face suddenly became real friendly with the surface of the desk. "See!?" he sprung up and told me animatedly. "I _told_ you he's trying to sabotage me! That's the only one I'm not good at! Favoritism my a—"

I slapped him in the back of the head. "Suck it up and figure it out. This is the future we're talking about here." I then smiled at him somewhat sadistically as he nursed the bump on his spiky haired crown. "You don't want to get left behind, do you?"

He stuck his lip out at me. "You're mean, Sakura-chan…"

"Deal with it."

I was fairly adept at the clone jutsu, though I failed to see how it was really that helpful against powerful enemies. Unlike the shadow clone jutsu, these clones were intangible, and to the practiced eye were easily distinguishable from the original. All you needed to do was make contact with them, and they would disperse—waste of chakra if you asked me, but a good beginner's exercise, nonetheless. Substitution was much more useful by far in my opinion, and highly underrated. I used it regularly in spars to the point where I had memorized the chakra paths it took and could now do it without seals to guide the technique into being. The only drawback was the range factor. I was still working on extending it, but it was slow going without guidance from someone who really knew what they were doing. And then there was transformation, which could also be useful. Not only could it change you into another person, it could change you into whatever the hell you wanted. If you were good at suppressing your chakra signature, you could disguise yourself as a twig, and enemies could pass right over you without even noticing.

Proficiency in these techniques, as well as the escape jutsu, and rudimentary genjutsu had been tested already, as well as aptitudes in taijutsu, and weapons mastery. The last spars had been a week ago and of course, I just _had_ to be paired up with everyone's favorite ice prince. I was a little bit worried, since I had lost so badly… But then again, it was _Sasuke_. _Everyone_ lost against him. I just wish he'd had a little bit of common decency and taken the skill assessment into account. The only assessment Iruka-sensei had been able to take account of was Sasuke's proficiency in nailing an opponent in one minute flat, and mine in eating dirt. I mean, come on! It was practically academy courtesy to let the other person fight back during a test, in order for their skill to be analyzed by the instructor! Everyone _else_ did it! But no, not Sasuke. Not a fuck was given with that one.

I swear, sometimes I had vivid fantasies about shoving a pig skewer up his backside when he was least expecting it… And sometimes I wished I had been born in the same place as Suigetsu where impaling people was considered normal. Konoha was way too judgmental in my opinion.

But it turned out that my worries were for nothing when I exited the exam room, hitai-ate in hand. Iruka-sensei was a fair teacher after all, and he knew how both Sasuke and I were in respect to combat. He knew how good _I_ was at analyzing a target, and he knew how good _Sasuke_ was at flattening his. The only reason we were paired up at that time was probably because there was no one left to pair up with. And so I let my resentment die, because honestly? I graduated. Odds were I'd never have to deal with that crazy little shit ever again. So really, who fucking cares?

I spotted Naruto by himself on the swing across the courtyard. I sighed. Looks like things never change.

"Here." I shoved a coupon in his face. The one Teuchi-san had given me the other night on a 'first time at Ichiraku's' basis. "Consolation prize."

"Thanks…" he mumbled miserably, staring at the ground.

I sent him a half smile and patted his head. "Don't worry. You might be a lot of things, Naruto, but you're not stupid. I'm sure you'll figure out some way to weasel your way in if you're determined enough." I paused thoughtfully. "Actually…I'm pretty sure you could fly to the _moon_ if you were determined enough, so that sort of makes the point redundant…"

It managed to wring a smile out of him. And with that, I was satisfied.

"Hey look…that kid. He's the only one who didn't graduate," some kid's mom pointed out, not bothering to keep her voice down. Honestly…the nerve of some people. "Hmph, serves him right."

"If that kid becomes a shinobi, it'll only cause trouble. After all…he's the one—"

Having finally had enough—having listened to this sort of crap for twelve years now without comment—I sent a withering look back over my shoulder, glaring through my bangs. "Do you wrinkly old windbags think you can gossip any _louder_? We haven't gone deaf yet."

Both of them sent scandalized looks in my direction and one covered her mouth, "Is that Mebuki-san's daughter?"

"Oh _god_…" I rolled my eyes, recognizing one of them as Hinoe-san from three doors down. She was the worst. "Not this shit _again_…" Marching over, I finally decided to set the record straight. "I am _afraid_ of scissors, okay?! My mother did _not_ try to murder me! And if you start saying nasty things about her behind her back again, I am _not_ going to stand for it! Just because _her_ husband is faithful and doesn't try to sleep with every woman he meets on principle like _yours_, doesn't give you the right to wave your jealously around like a fucking flag of glory—"

I think I was expecting the slap before I felt it. I wasn't expecting her to start _crying_ though. I may have felt a little horrible about shaming a grown woman in public—at least until her friend guided her away from the prying eyes…but she _deserved_ it. She'd been doing the same thing to my mother for years, until all of her friends abandoned her. Now, Mebuki may not have been my real mother. My real mother was a million worlds away, and it killed me every time I thought about it…but Mebuki gave me life. I couldn't just _not_ feel anything for her. And I would defend her honor and reputation, even if it meant shaming _myself_.

I turned away from all the eyes and looks aimed at me from the other families of the graduates back to the swing set, only to see that Naruto was no longer there. I sighed. Looks like I was trekking it alone this one—

"That was quite a scene you just caused, Young Lady. What am I going to do with you?" A hand on my shoulder nearly made me jump. Mom had the stealth skills to murder just about anyone. I didn't know why everyone was still making a fuss over _me_. They should've been worried about themselves.

I bowed my head. "Sorry mom… I lost my temper."

She sighed, tilting my chin up. I was surprised to see her smiling. "You really are just like your father. He's out getting you a graduation present right now."

"Am I still grounded?" I asked, hoping for a different answer than I expected.

"Oh yes." She killed those hopes with a smile on her face. "But tonight is a special occasion. You only graduate once. Where would you like to go for dinner?"

"Well…" I really thought about just asking to go home, but then again, I had this strange craving… "A friend told me about this pretty cool ramen place…"

* * *

I pulled my bangs to the side with the hairpin dad had given to me on graduation night; a few strands escaped, but there wasn't much I could do about that. Dad had a friend take the pretty sakura petal charm on his necklace and turn it into something to show him my 'pretty eyes.' I couldn't say much for the sentiment, but at least it was practical. Things were a lot easier without my bangs getting in my face all the time.

Even Ino remarked, "Wow! Who knew there was a face underneath there!?"

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks."

"Come over here a little closer!" She laughed, gesturing me over to the seat beside her. "I need to see this!"

"It's not that big a deal. Seriously. You're making me blush." I crossed my arms, giving her a look that clearly embodied nothing but exasperation.

"Hmm…" She tapped her chin, giving my face an assessing sort of look. "You'd probably look good with a more edgy style… Maybe a dark blue? No… Something to make the green stand out."

"What are you talking about…?" I sighed, only mildly interested in the answer.

She dug around in her hip pocket for a moment, emerging with a couple brushes and a bottle of mascara. "Every good kunoichi's gotta knock 'em dead."

"Oh no." I leaned away from her. "No way. We're not doing this. I am _not_ subjecting myself to 'the makeover.' It's just not going to happen."

She frowned with a bit of a pout. "Have I ever _once_ steered you wrong yet? Come on, Sakura, if you don't like it, you can just take it off. Don't be such a baby."

"I'm _not_ being a baby, I just can't stand this cliché situation—" I covered my eyes as my window of escape passed me by in a spectacular show of puppy eyes. "You know what? Do whatever you want."

"Yeah!" she cheered, and with a sly grin she assured me, "I knew you'd say yes."

"How often does that work on your dad?" I sent her a cynical glare.

"One hundred percent of the time, if the situation is right," she chuckled evilly.

"Why am I not surprised…?" I sighed as I saw her uncap the eyeliner.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" A loud, earsplitting voice assaulted me not too long after. "Look at this! Lookit! Lookit!"

I turned my head to see the hyperactive ninja brandishing the shiny plate on his forehead proudly. "Again…why am I not surprised?"

"Are you kidding me?" Ino exclaimed. "That's a freaking miracle right there! There's no way!"

"Whoa, Sakura-chan…" Naruto said softly, ignoring Ino's commentary. "You look really cute."

"Ha! See!" the other blonde crowed triumphantly. "Even idiots can appreciate my art."

"Don't encourage her, Naruto," I sighed with a shake of my head. "Anyway…all that noise the other night. I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say it was _your_ fault?"

"Ahehe…" He rubbed his neck while avoiding my eyes, but then suddenly exploded as a thought occurred to him. "Did you guys know Mizuki-sensei was a traitor?! He's the biggest jerk ever! You know he tried to steal this really super important scroll—"

"Probably after you did something just as bad…" I sent him the stinkeye, crossing my arms over my chest. "Am I right?"

"Um…hehe…maybe just a little?" He avoided my eyes again, but then confessed, "Okay, _I_ stole the scroll first, but he told me if I learned a jutsu from it, Iruka-sensei would let me graduate!"

I closed my eyes and shook my head, chanting, "Stupid, stupid, stupid… You realize he could've killed you, right?"

"What?! No way! I totally flattened him with my super cool new jutsu! Believe it!" he protested wildly.

"Like I'll believe that!" Ino protested right back. "_You_? Beat up a chuinin? When pigs fly." Which was kind of ironic, coming from her.

"Well, he _had_ to graduate somehow…" I reminded her, pointing out the hitai-ate. "And that's obviously Iruka-sensei's. Naruto couldn't have _stolen_ it, and something big had to have happened if Iruka-sensei gave it to him. I have to say…I actually believe him." I shrugged. "Mizuki-sensei always gave me the shivers anyway…"

"Well, that part's true at least…" Ino grumbled, then spotted everyone's favorite frownyface and grinned. "I'll see you later, Sakura! I've got a date with hunkalicious…"

"Oh god, you did _not_ just call him that…" I shook my head at her in disgust. She just giggled and vaulted over the desks to get to the empty seat beside Sasuke before anyone else could. I turned to Naruto as he occupied her empty seat with a huff. "Honestly, I can't _believe_ her sometimes… That guy is the worst."

"Yeah!" he agreed heartily. "Why's everyone always so…ugh! Everything is always about Sasuke! Kyaa, kyaa, Sasuke this, Sasuke that! Well I'm sick of it! I'm going to do something about it!"

"Eh? Wait, Naruto, that's probably not such a good—" But he was off before I could snag his arm to stop him, and I watched on silently as he hopped up in front of the class heartthrob with a challenging scowl. "This isn't going to end well… It _never_ ends well…"

Everyone was sort of just waiting for Sasuke to slug him in the face until some roughhousers in front of them elbowed Naruto in the ass and sent the boy careening head first into Sasuke…where pure misfortune on both their parts led to both of them losing their first kiss to each other… At which point I sunk down under my desk to escape the ensuing chaos—led by an enraged Ino and co—holding both hands over my mouth, trying and failing not to laugh. Naruto seemed to be smart enough to try and escape as well, but this only dragged others into the crossfire, and soon, the entire class was consumed by utter mayhem. I was eventually joined by a somewhat traumatized Hinata who crawled over to share my hiding spot, and surprisingly enough, _Sasuke_. I had a theory it was because we were the only two females in the class who didn't want to see him _naked_…which was a fair enough reason as any, I supposed. We all sort of cowered there together without words until Iruka-sensei showed up with a clipboard.

"What the _hell_ is going on in here?!"

There was a moment where everyone just froze, and then unanimously blamed Naruto; it wasn't really all that surprising. When Iruka began his lecture, Hinata—bless her little stalker heart—went over and helped Naruto hobble over to take a seat between the two of us, while I sat on the other side of Sasuke. I wasn't exactly comfortable with that, seeing as how I was still as wary of the kid as I would be a coiled rattlesnake, but reminded myself that I had chosen to put the four years of enmity behind me. Besides, the dude had just been smooched by a _guy_. I had to feel a little sorry for him. And Naruto? I just felt sorry for him in general. Beaten and bruised as he was…I had to wonder why I didn't remember such an intense outburst in the series. Hadn't it just been the girls beating up Naruto? Not everyone beating up each other…surely. I shook my head.

"As genin, I expect more from you all! You're all officially ninja of Konoha! This sort of behavior is disgraceful!" Iruka went on in his impassioned lecturing. "It's going to get tougher and tougher from here on out, and you will all need to rely on each other in order to complete your missions! Teamwork is the most important! This is why all of you are going to be assigned to a team of three under a Jounin leader. And each of you better find a way to live with it because team assignments are final, People!" And as the usual communal groan was wrought from the students he ordered, "No complaining!"

"Wow… Iruka-sensei is acting unusually hardassed today, huh?" I remarked out loud.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," Naruto, miraculously recovered from his beating, grinned. "who do you want on your team?"

"Hmm…" I thought carefully, tapping my chin pensively. Finally I admitted. "I'll have to say just about anyone but you and Sasuke. No offense, but you two seem to carry around bad luck like it's going out of style or something, and I actually plan to be alive for my next birthday, thank you very much." I then looked over Naruto's head as he pouted and called. "Hey, Hinata, you're a sensor with your clan's doujutsu, right? I bet you could totally watch my back…as well as everyone else's within a mile's radius. How would you feel about teaming up with me?"

"Well…I…I d-don't th-think we really get a choice in the m-matter, but…" she squeaked out, tapping her fingers together nervously and avoiding everyone's eyes. "I wouldn't exactly m-mind…"

I smiled at her. "I guess we'll just have to see where the chips fall then, huh?"

She smiled back. It was actually kind of refreshing to talk to someone who was more introverted than I was. And I was fairly sure the sudden burst of confidence I had been experiencing over the past week had been due to a miniature epiphany—or nervous breakdown, whatever you'd like to call it—mostly due to the existence of Ino, believe it or not. Because she was right. She hadn't steered me wrong yet. And you know what? I decided that confidence looked pretty damn good on me. Knock 'em dead, huh? Well, I was going to see if I could take that phrase to a literal context. Who cares what the future was going to bring? It's not like it was set in stone or anything—

"Group seven!" Iruka called out. "Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Uchiha Sasuke."

I stared at the chunin in wide mouthed horror. This couldn't be happening. No way. I thought I'd made sure to keep my grades average! This wasn't fair! It wasn't supposed to be like this—But what if it was? What if everything that had happened was already plotted out, and set into motion? What if nothing I did would ever change anything? After all, my actions already seemed to have amounted to nothing. Even my newfound confidence was useless. I was still stuck right where it was assured that bad luck and misfortune would pummel me into nothing. Because I _wasn't_ Sakura. There was no way I could replace her. This was exactly what I had been trying to avoid all my life.

"Ha!" Naruto pointed at me with a grin. "Looks like you've got bad luck too!"

My forehead made contact with the surface of my desk with a resounding '_thunk_,' at which point I heard Sasuke speak up from the other side of me. "The both of you are idiots…"

I took that moment to send him a stinging glare that vented my internal turmoil. Normally, I wouldn't care what he called me, much less something as unoriginal as 'idiot,' but he caught me at a bad moment, and my resolve to swallow my resentment folded spectacularly. Confession time: "I hate you. Please just die."

The look on his face soured to the consistency of curdled milk. Ha. Weren't expecting that one, were you? Jerk. And honestly, for some reason, I just felt lighter. Sitting on piled up resentment for over four years can do that to you. I might've felt a little guilty for effectively naming him as my enemy in front of our entire peer group, were it not for the fact that it felt so good to say it. I was going to have to do a lot of soul searching before I could be the bigger person and put it behind me. One does not just forgive deliberate sabotaging of another's shinobi career, with the apathy and carelessness one possesses when unknowingly stomping on ants no less. I wasn't an ant. And I was going to make sure that bastard knew it.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed wholeheartedly, demanding from Iruka-sensei, "And why does someone with awesome skills like me have to be with a guy like Sasuke!?"

"Because you've got the worst grades, and Sasuke's got the best," I grumbled out for him, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the chunin as if it were his fault. "What I don't understand is why _I_ have to be here. Explain."

"You've got the best tactical and analyzation skillset, Sakura…" Iruka sighed dramatically. "There had to be a strategist on the team in order to balance it."

"You've gotta be _kidding_ me…" I buried my face in my hands.

"Nope," he replied flatly without an ounce of sympathy. "Not kidding. You don't like it, take it up with Hokage-sama." I still don't think he'd forgiven me for my slight against the Nidaime. He looked back down at his clipboard. "Moving on. Group eight…"

My face became good friends with my desk for the duration of the team assignments. Any attempt at consolation was duly ignored because there was no consolation for this kind of thing. I had just been handed my death sentence in the form of a blond headed idiot with a death wish and an emotionally constipated idiot with an older brother complex.

It's times like these when I really wish I'd never gotten out of bed.

* * *

**(Edit: Because doc manager is screwing with me)**

**WOW. This got a lot more attention than I was anticipating. I was really surprised.**

**And I'd just like to give everyone a HUGE thank you for all of your reviews. They make me happy :)**

**To address questions, so far, there has been the inevitable one about future pairings...which I am not going to give out unless you bombard me with PMs in which I am notoriously loose-lipped. All I can say for now is that you'll find out if there will be pairings sometime around when the chunin exams should be. This fic will probably be fairly AU though, so I'll leave WHEN that may be to your own imaginations.**

**Thanks once again, and, as always, when you like what you read (or HATE what you read), please leave a review to SUPPORT THE AUTHORS!**


	3. The Many Deaths of Sasuke Uchiha

**Clouds Over the Moon, a Storm Over Blossoms**

**:3: The Many Deaths of Sasuke Uchiha :3:**

Sakura wasn't happy. And something about that just made Naruto's stomach _squirm_ because a part of him was terrified that it was _his_ fault. Or maybe it was something he ate; he was pretty sure that milk he had earlier tasted a little bit off—but _still_, he couldn't shake the lingering feeling that he had done something wrong to make her upset with him. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but the quiet, intense girl he admired from afar had suddenly become his friend. At least he _thought_ she was his friend. Sort of. Now…he wasn't so sure.

She suddenly showed up one day, out of the blue. And that day, when she calmly pleaded with him to come down off the Hokage faces, he found out that the quiet, well-mannered girl everyone thought they knew wasn't really that quiet, or that well-mannered at all. Talk about a head scratcher. And she was nicer than anyone else in his class! Sort of. Okay, not really. But…she was different. She treated him differently, and even called him _smart_ once! He was pretty sure it was the first time anyone had said something like that to him. What was even cooler was that she seemed to have faith he'd show up with a headband even after he failed the graduation test.

Maybe that's why he thought it would be great if they could end up on the same team. And when her name was announced after his, he thought luck had finally decided to toss him a bone, but… Well, therein lay the heart of the problem. _She didn't want to be with him_.

And that was when the crushing reality came rushing back in, and it hurt worse than the blows when all the kunoichi in the class (minus Sakura and that Hinata girl) had ganged up on him. He supposed it shouldn't have been all that surprising. After all, at best, most people treated him like an annoying bug, and at worst, they went out of their way to avoid him, like he was some sort of nasty plague. And now he knew why… But Sakura couldn't know about _that_. Only the adults did. So that ruled out that as an explanation for her reaction to the team placements… But then…what could possibly…

"Hey. Everyone else is eating with their team… Let's—" a dreary voice assaulted his frantic thought process, making him jump. "…Are you okay? You look a little pale."

"Huh? Sakura-chan?" He whirled around to face a much recovered pink-haired kunoichi, who'd finally managed to peel her face off her desk from where she'd previously been pretending to be dead. With that in mind, he thought it was a little weird that she was asking him if _he_ was okay, and, still unused to actually _seeing_ her entire face free of the bangs that usually hid it, he replied with the usual word vomit he was prone to when nervous. "Me? Oh, I'm great! Better than great! I'm totally ready to kick some ass! I can't wait to start doing missions! Saving princesses, beating up bandits—I'm pumped up!"

She kind of stared at him for a second with a bland look he sometimes got from the Old Man when he said something stupid, and then she sighed, shaking her head. "Let's just go… Preferably before the building implodes with your…_enthusiasm_."

He blinked, "Where are we going?" but stood to follow her out of the classroom anyway, because she wasn't waiting on him.

"The teams are all eating lunch together," she repeated dryly, an irritated expression crossing her features. "…Where the _hell_ is Sasuke?"

"Who _cares_?" Naruto let out a disdainful snort at the lone thought of the bastard, some of his bad mood leaking through to his voice.

She sent him an appraising look. "You know what? You make a good point."

"That jerk…" he grumbled out.

"Bastard," she agreed with an affirmative nod, still watching him carefully. Then she said, "You know…I didn't mean to make such a big deal about being stuck on a team with you guys. It's nothing personal… It's just…it'll never work out."

He looked at her questioningly. "What d'you mean?"

"The team. Us. The three of us together. It's just not going to work," she specified with a shrug. "I mean, in theory, we've got the right stuff. You're completely unpredictable, and no matter how far that uppity pretty boy's got his head stuck up his ass, it's no debate that he's got some skill. All I have to do is point you guys and shoot. The only problem is that there's no chemistry." She gestured helplessly with her hands. "All the right puzzle pieces, but none of 'em fit. It's a damn shame."

"So…it's not because you hate me?" He blinked at her, bemused.

She sent him a hard look. "…You got your head stuck up your ass too or something? What'd I just say?"

"So it's all Sasuke's fault?" he surmised, finally starting to get the picture. Of course, that was it. It all made sense now.

She let her head fall back with a heavy sigh, as if asking the clouds for a translator. "Yeah… Sure. Let's go with that. It's more or less the truth anyway." She paused though, as something in an upper classroom window appeared to catch her eye. "Well…speak of the devil."

"Eh? What's he doing all the way up there?" Naruto squinted up at the third member of their team disdainfully. Probably thought he looked cool or something, eating his stupid riceball…

"Good question." Sakura sent a similarly unimpressed glower up at the boy. "Everyone _else_ is eating with their team… I bet he thinks he's special or something and doesn't have to follow the stupid _rules_ like the rest of us mere mortals…" A negative aura seemed to be curling around her like a black shroud. Even Naruto, who was usually as dense as they came when it came to sensing stuff like that, backed away from her a little.

"Uh…Sakura-chan?" he tried carefully.

A small, but unpleasant smile curled her lips and, without removing her eyes from the object of her ire, she proposed in a perfectly composed voice, "He lets his guard down when he eats, huh…? What do you say we cause him a little pain…eh, Naruto?"

* * *

I curled my fist around a jagged stone and aimed, taking into account its weight and intended trajectory, then fired without remorse. I didn't care if it was a cheap shot—that fucker needed to go down. And it was about time _somebody_ did it. I refrained from using cheap shots during class spars, because even if I won, Iruka-sensei counted it as a draw due to unfair tactics. Even Mom told me it was degrading to my status as a kunoichi to fight dirty.

I had to say, I never believed a word of the crap people spewed about that thing called 'honor.' People explained the concept to me, but I never really understood it. Wasn't it all relative? A sense of honor was defined by the individual. Some people, like the samurai, defined honor as dying upon loss in battle, refusing mercy, even going so far as to finish the job themselves upon being spared. Some, like Naruto, had a 'fall down seven times, get up eight' philosophy, to never give up, no matter what. And I could respect that. But what others failed to understand was that I had my _own_ sense of honor. And that was to _win_, to succeed, by _any_ means necessary. Had I been born a samurai, let's just say I would've committed seppuku many times over had I lost as much as I had to Sasuke. So I had to admit, cheap as it may be, I liked my way of restoring honor _much_ better.

But then, in a moment of pure ease, as the projectile zeroed in on his temple, he tilted his head, ever so slightly—almost enough to make it look like it was natural. But it _wasn't_, because straight after, our eyes met directly and rooted me to the spot for what felt like the longest moment _ever_. In reality, however, it was less than a second, and then the spike of fear was pushed into a tiny compartment in the back of my head to be replaced with ingrained survival instincts built up over several years of intense training. Hence, the prompt abandonment of Naruto—I took off like a bat out of hell with the devil still on my heels. And I wasn't too far off the mark with that…

I didn't stop running until I was halfway across Konoha and safe in the women's bath house, where I hid out like a fugitive for the rest of lunch hour. There was only _one_ ninja I knew of who broke that sacred code of privacy after Princess Tsunade was through with him, and I had a pretty good hunch he was someone _else's_ problem at the moment. In any case, that was my alibi and I was sticking to it. Nobody could prove anything…unless Sasuke wrung the truth out of Naruto somehow. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to leave him behind after all… Then again, Naruto's slower than cold molasses running up a hill sometimes and attracts bad luck like flies to shit, so it was a lose-lose situation from the get go… I was only a little bit sorry.

As I sat, fuming, in the scalding water with my head half submerged, it was those _eyes_ that I thought of. There was no denying it. Sasuke had _changed_ since the beginning of our academy days. Back then I could've even _liked_ the guy. But then _that_ happened, and it was like he took a total one-eighty. It was frankly depressing to watch…and even a little disturbing—like watching some fucked up metamorphosis, or someone's _head_ turning all the way around. It scared the _hell_ out of me. _He_ scared the hell out of me. Maybe that was the real reason why I hated him so much.

That said, I was a little bit devastated myself when the Uchiha clan was destroyed—for my own reasons. Ever since somebody made a house call about a suspected murder taking place at the Haruno's house and the ever jovial Shisui Uchiha showed up to investigate, I held a certain fondness for the Uchiha Military Police Department, even if a good number of them were stoic faced dicks. That didn't really matter though. All I knew was that children were left unsupervised to run around wild in the streets, because everyone knew that the moment one of them so much as fell down and busted up their knees, one of the members of the UMPD would be there to swoop down and send them home with a pat on the head and fresh bandaids on their scrapes.

I also knew that when Ami and her stupid friends thought they could try and gang up on me, all I had to do was pretend to cry and run to hide behind one of the patrolmen on duty. Mediocre bullies were no match for the stern glare of an irritated Uchiha. Even less when said Uchiha happened to be the head of the Police Force. I actually ran into Sasuke's dad a lot, since his assigned patrol route turned out to be generally close to my home. Even though he got annoyed, and scolded me a lot—because eventually, crocodile tears are pretty easy to tell apart from the real ones—I actually genuinely liked the guy. Because even though he told me to fight my own battles, he never failed to scare the poop out of Ami. The look on her face—as if somebody just kicked her puppy—was often the highpoint of my entire day, and I had good old Fugaku to thank for it. It got to the point where I practically had the patrol routes memorized...but I stayed well away from those places now, ever since I found out Sasuke had developed a habit of haunting them...

So yes, I was devastated when the massacre happened. Not only had my primary defense against Ami and her stupid bullies spontaneously combusted…but…I just didn't feel safe anymore. Imagine you live in a small town, then suddenly you stop seeing the familiar faces you associated with security and protection, the police cars are all dead and abandoned on the side of the road—the station, completely burnt to the ground. Because that's what they did. They burned the entire Uchiha compound into the dirt, so not even a trace of them was left.

Most kids my age didn't even have the capacity to understand what had happened. These were still the days when parents lied to their children and said that their dead pets had simply 'run away,' after all. But I was not a child, and no matter how much I pretended otherwise...I never _had_ been in this life. I understood perfectly well what had happened. And it was the wakeup call that roughly dragged me finally kicking and screaming into the light of the situation. I was a dead woman living in a little girl's body in a reality nobody thought existed. Everything was real. It was the turning point for me, which sent me spiraling into a storm of apathy and indifference—which was better than the alternative of suicidal depression. Because I had lost _everything_; my life, my passion, my _world_. And I knew now that life was too short to even care about anything at all.

And I'd been living, existing that way, by simply going through the motions ever since. I became a ninja because my parents expected it from me, without really considering anything else about it. I memorized the ninja rule book because someone had shoved it in front of me and forced it down my throat, when all I really wanted to do was shove it back and live by my own rules. I trained hard because I had no hobbies, or social ties to speak of—all relics of a forgotten time and place—and there was really nothing else left for me to do. Then came the sense of accomplishment I felt when my efforts actually _achieved_ something. I was _winning_. And with that, I trained even harder, lived by those rules for more and more of the same results. It was the first time in forever that I _really_ wanted something. The fight was everything because it made me think, made my heart beat faster, faster—made me feel _alive_. That was what I lived for. Winning was all I cared about. Failure was not an option. Not for me.

So what was different this time?

When I finally dragged myself back to the academy, late as always, I rejected any effort towards stealth, because it wasn't like it was going to matter anyway…or so I thought. Getting a face full of chalk dust proved that I had miscalculated.

"Ha! That serves you right for ditching me earlier!" Naruto laughed pointing at me as I knelt slowly to pick up the eraser that had just fallen on my head. I couldn't believe I fell for such a stupid trap. It made absolutely no sense. This team placement thing was throwing me off my game, and I _didn't_ like it. I stared down at the eraser in my hand, tuning out Naruto's inane chattering, and tried to identify the slow boiling feeling welling up in my chest. I didn't normally get angry. I didn't normally get scared either. Today, I had been _both_, intermittently, at fluctuating levels and intervals. Let's just say it wasn't my brightest moment.

"_NARUTO_!" the name exploded like an expletive from my mouth that probably shook the windows at which point I tackled him into a head lock and subsequently began to beat him senseless with the eraser in my right hand. Each time it collided with his head a cloud of dust burst out in a suffocating haze that eventually filled the entire classroom. Sasuke seemed perfectly content to watch us beat the heck out of each other until the smoke reached his level and he started coughing. And when I finally released the poor idiot, and the suffocating air began to clear…there stood _the_ Kakashi Hatake, staring at the three of us with an inscrutable expression in his only visible eye.

There was silence until Sasuke had another coughing fit, somehow managing to send a nasty glare at the two of us in the same instance, while Naruto was curled up in a fetal position at my feet, and I was just staring at Kakashi looking somewhat dumbfounded and struggling for words. "Um…this isn't what it looks like?"

He blinked that solitary eye at me slowly, and for some reason, it was enough. Without him saying anything, I already felt good and chastised. Slowly…and ever so cautiously, without breaking eye contact, I put the eraser back in the chalk tray where it belonged. He blinked once more before holding up a hand sign. "Let's get this over with. On the roof. Now." And with that, he was gone in a poof of smoke.

I let out a breath I had been holding and stared down at the quivering boy at my feet with a tugging feeling of remorse in the back of my head. Sighing, I reached down and grabbed the back of his jacket, pulling him up and dusting off his chalk coated hair. "Sorry… I lost my temper."

"You're scary when you lose your temper," he supplied somewhat needlessly.

I nodded my head with another sigh. "I know… I'm trying to get a handle on it."

"Then try harder next time. Before you throw another rock at me." Sasuke grumbled as he passed us, headed for the classroom door.

I blinked at him innocently. "Why would I want to throw a rock at you?"

"Because you hate me and want me to die," he quoted back.

"I didn't say _I_ wanted to be the one to kill you," I pointed out dryly. "If I was going to try and do that, I would've used something sharp and pointy…or at least a bigger rock." I couldn't help the subtle smirk that bloomed upon my lips. "But I'd much rather see something with really big teeth come along and eat you, or a random meteor fall from the sky and conveniently land on your head."

"You think about these things often?" He scowled at me.

I stared back at him intently. "…In _vivid _detail."

He walked ahead of me quickly after that. Good. Homemade Sasuke repellant. Exactly what I needed. Just list all the horrible, gruesome ways you wish he would die. It seemed to be highly effective. And really, all I had to do was remove the filter between my thoughts and my mouth. It was _that_ easy. I should've done it years ago. So what if it was the result of a semi-nervous breakdown? It seemed to be working out for me.

In way of apology for ditching him earlier and beating my frustration for the whole situation into him with an eraser, I entertained Naruto for the rest of the trip upstairs with more of my morbid Sasuke death fantasies as the boy in question pretended not to hear us. It sort of became a game between the two of us. Who could come up with the most ridiculous way for Sasuke to die? I believe 'knocked unconscious with a flaming pot of miso ramen then locked in the bedroom of a homocidal yandere fangirl' was the winner—we _both_ contributed to that one, in case you couldn't already tell.

"Alright. Introductions… Do yourselves a favor and _try_ to come up with some redeeming qualities," Kakashi instructed as we arranged ourselves on a couple rows of stairs, seeming to convey an expression of pain and exasperation through a single eye. "You on the right, go."

"Uhh…" Naruto scratched his head. "I don't really know what to say…?"

I sent him a pointed look. "Is the world ending already? A day when _you_ don't have anything to say means the apocalypse is coming early."

"Eh? No! I mean, like, what am I _supposed_ to say?" He waved his arms emphatically.

"Your name, for one thing," I pointed out dryly.

"Oh! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" He adjusted his headband with a grin.

"Great." I rolled my eyes. "The subject can properly identify himself… Next, redeeming qualities. What are you good at?"

"Umm…" He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Pulling pranks, I guess."

"Of which we are all _painfully_ aware of…" I sighed. "What else?"

"Oh! I'm really good at being patient!" He grasped on to a new train of thought.

"Really…?" I remarked dubiously.

"Yeah! You know, when you make cup ramen, you always have to wait, like, three minutes?" he chattered on excitedly. "I am _the best_ at waiting for cup ramen to cook."

"Ah…well, no arguing with that, then. Last question:" I pegged him with a look. "Why'd you become a ninja?"

"Huh? Oh, that's easy." He grinned from ear to ear. "I'm going to be Hokage one day! Believe it! Then everyone will acknowledge me!"

"Hmm… I'm not sure if that's exactly how it works, but you seem to make up your own rules as you go along. More power to you." I nodded, then switched the interrogation to the second member of the team. "Next subject. Name please."

Sasuke glowered at me.

"Hm," I remarked with raised brows, noting, "Subject seems to be unable to identify himself. Must be defective. I guess I'll just have to do the introduction _for_ him—"

"Sasuke Uchiha," he bit out acerbically.

"I thought that might give you some motivation…" I smiled insincerely at him. This was actually kind of fun. "So, what are you good at? And don't just say 'everything,' because I have it under good authority that you are an _awful_ kisser." I subtly jerked my thumb at Naruto, who looked slightly green.

He narrowed his eyes further. "You done?"

"Hardly." The corner of my mouth curled up. "We're a team now, remember? All for one, and one for all? If one of us is miserable, we _all_ get to be miserable. Sounds like fun, huh?"

"_No_," he replied bluntly.

"_Welcome to my world_," I said slowly and deliberately, then, after a pause, "…Last question. Why'd you become a ninja?"

His face went dark, and then he began, "…To kill a certain—"

"Liar." I stared at him. "You used to be nice once… Do you even _remember_ why you wanted to be a ninja back then?"

There was a long, heavy silence. And then he admitted stiffly, addressing the hands folded pristinely in front of his face, "…No."

I looked away. "That's really sad, Sasuke."

His eyes flashed, flicking to me angrily. "_Your _turn."

I shrugged. "Name: Sakura Haruno. Redeeming qualities: None. I'm insufferable actually; I've recently discovered I'm most comfortable operating _outside_ the bounds of acceptable human behavior. As for why I became a ninja…I'm just hoping to outlast the end of the world—which is turning out to be a rather dim prospect at the moment. Beyond that, there's really not much else to tell." I next turned my eyes to Kakashi, who'd remained silent from the beginning. "…Your turn."

"Hm…you're all very…unique," he began hesitantly. If by 'unique,' you mean 'utterly insane' then yes. Yes we are. I stared at him flatly to indicate my thoughts on the bullshit assessment. At which point he cleared his throat a bit and revealed, "Well…my name is Kakashi Hatake. I can't really think of any redeeming qualities right now, though people tell me I have a lot… Why did I become a ninja? Hmm…that's a personal question."

"So basically, this entire conversation was completely useless," I deduced. "Because the only one here who everyone hasn't already _known_ for years—and you've no doubt read our files by now—is _you_. And you've just given us nothing to go on besides your name…"

"Yeah! That's not fair, Sensei!" Naruto whined brattishly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, I don't think it's been useless. If you're determined, you can probably find out plenty about me just by knowing my name and asking around. And I've discovered a lot about you guys already, actually." He tapped his chin pensively as he stared at me. "For one thing, taking the information from your files combined with what I've learned today, I've come to find that you, Sakura-kun, along with being a tactical genius with excellent memorization skills, are also prone to random acts of violence, an expert in the art of deflection using narcissism, that may or may not be genuine, and belittlement of others. And for some reason, according to Uchiha Military Police records, you also have a pathological fear of scissors."

I felt myself stiffen intensely, the leisurely look on my face melting right away and tightening into a humorless frown. Sometimes I wondered if I would've been better off keeping my mouth shut after all.

There was a snort from my left, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I felt Sasuke's eyes on me. "Scissors…? What could've been so bad that the police had to get involved?"

I glowered at him dangerously out of the corner of my eye. "…You're about to step on a landmine. Take this friendly advice, because it's the only thing _remotely_ friendly you're ever going to get from me. Tread carefully around this subject…if you want to survive the night."

"Now, now, Kiddies…play nice." Kakashi sighed heavily. "As for you, Sasuke…it seems that anything having to do with your clan provokes a reaction. Understandable. It's about what I expected from you. You're nothing if not predictable."

I aimed a nasty smirk at the boy who looked to be on the verge of flipping me off.

"And Naruto…you're completely the opposite. Where to begin…hm. Interesting. You're all interesting. That's good." He clasped his hands together in an 'ok!' motion. "Tomorrow, we'll start our missions as a shinobi cell unit."

"Oh, yeah! Missions, missions! What kind of missions?!" Naruto bounced excitedly in his seat.

"I wouldn't expect much if I were you…" I grumbled at him. "Dad says Genin always get stuck with the shitty missions at first…"

"Aw maaaan…" he groaned, his head dropping to his chest in disappointment.

"Don't jump too far ahead. First we're going to be doing something with all four of us," Kakashi explained. "Something a bit like survival training, I suppose… I'll be your opponent."

"Oh no…" I winced. "You gotta be kidding me… It's not a test, is it? Please say no."

"Yes." He smiled at us mercilessly with his eye crinkling at the corner. "With a failure rate of over sixty-six percent. Only _nine_ are chosen from a graduating class to become jounin mentored genin—in a state of peace time, that is. The rest get stuck with the genin corps, or end up being sent back to the academy for further training."

"WHAT?!" Naruto exclaimed, waving his arms and nearly blowing my eardrums out. "Are you bullshitting me? We already worked so hard to _get_ here! What was the point of even graduating?"

"Oh, that? Just to weed out the really stupid ones, I suspect," the jounin tossed back callously with a shrug.

"Ehhhh?" He seemed to sink down into a pit of despair, holding his head in his hands, and even trembling a little with shot nerves. I felt sort of bad, and frowned at him, somewhat concerned.

"Anyway, tomorrow, you're going to need to show me all you've got. Bring all your tools. And don't eat breakfast, or you'll probably throw up." He walked over leisurely to hand us some overcomplicated leaflets that basically told us nothing. "Don't be late." And with that, he was gone in a blast of chakra charged smoke.

I reached over carefully and plucked Naruto's pamphlet from his hands, helpfully circling the time and location before returning it. His reading level wasn't really all that spectacular. "That's all you really need to know. Don't worry about all the extra stuff… It's just thrown in there to make it look all official and stuff. Don't know what he's trying to prove by it… Only one of us here has parents, and parents are the only people who care about that kind of thing." I tapped my chin. "Speaking of which, I should probably invite you guys over to dinner or something… Mom will kill me if I don't."

Naruto blinked at me with wide blue eyes, but Sasuke just scowled and crumpled his paper up. "Not a chance."

I scowled right back. "I wasn't _asking_. Mom's gonna throw a fit if I don't show up with _both_ my teammates."

"That's your problem." He got up and began to walk off.

I stood as well, beginning to feel a sense of panic, and I shot at his back, "It's free food. Plus, my mom is the best cook ever. All you need to do is come, eat, then leave and never come back."

He stopped walking for a second, seeming to consider it. I knew I'd get him with the 'free food' card. Orphaned academy students didn't exactly get the best allowance… But it appeared that he still had his pride, because then he just kept on walking. My shoulders slumped as I resigned myself to getting scolded.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned from ear to ear. "Who needs 'em anyway? I'll definitely come!"

It was obviously a brave move for him, seeing as how most of the village still hated his guts, and I appreciated it. However, I sighed, "Unfortunately, it won't make much of a difference if I don't have the complete set. And, no offence, but with you there…my mom is probably just going to be more pissed off." His head drooped in disappointment, and, feeling somewhat determined by that, I mentioned with the beginnings of a nasty smirk. "Unless you're motivated to help me tie Sasuke up and drag him with us against his will."

That said, his head snapped up with mischief dancing in his eyes.

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**Hey guys! Once again, I'm amazed with how many reviews this is getting.**

**I seriously can't thank you all enough.**

**I apologize if this chapter has some grammar mistakes, or awkward sentence structure. I don't currently have a lot of time on my hands, but I'm trying to get these chapters out for you all. Sacrifices must be made, but hopefully it doesn't detract too much from the overall quality of the story. Let me know!**

**And to SKYSPRITE: It's not the same as cannon, but I hope this still covered the scene that everyone always forgets xD**


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